Finding Genius Podcast

Mark Stephens Meadows developed his first simple chatbot in 2001, but what he's working on now is much more than that: as the CEO of Botanic Technologies, he's working on designing multimodal bots for conversational interfaces with several use cases, including gaming and healthcare. Designed as a combination of multiple AI systems, these bots have the ability to exhibit different facial expressions and use different tones of voice, thereby creating a more meaningful, human-like interaction for the user. Meadows explains what it is about bots that produce both trust and mistrust in humans, why people are likely to provide more information to and take advice from a bot than a human, and the single biggest design concern--how to avoid the uncanny valley effect. He also discusses what he believes to be the three primary ethical issues arising from the use of artificial intelligence, which formed the basis of Botanical Technologies' venture called Seed. "...Because we have these ethical questions in front of us, we make a system that is completely transparent, completely open-source...and allows people to authenticate bots...Seed is a Marketplace for developers and the users of the bots to ultimately democratize artificial intelligence. We need to democratize artificial intelligence because we see a lot of things that could go wrong if we don't," says Meadows. So, what exactly could go wrong? Tune in for specific examples and an overall compelling conversation.

According to the American Cancer Society, over 1,600 people in the United States die from cancer every day, many of whom were receiving the current standard of care, which is radiation, chemotherapy, or a combination of both. Thomas Seyfried is a professor in the biology department at Boston College and strong proponent of using metabolic therapy as a form of treatment for every type of cancer, arguing that it's more effective and less toxic than radiation and chemotherapy. So, what exactly does metabolic therapy entail? It's based on a simple concept: growth requires fuel, so in order to stop the growth of cancer cells, their sources of fuel--namely glucose and glutamine--must be reduced or eliminated. Reducing the availability of glucose and glutamine results in an increase in ketones, which can be effectively used by the body's normal cells but not by cancer cells. Seyfried explains how the primary difference between cancer cells and normal cells makes this an effective form of treatment for cancer, discusses how to achieve a state of therapeutic ketosis, and describes what to do once a state of therapeutic ketosis has been achieved. He also explains what's standing in the way of widespread implementation of metabolic therapy in modern medicine, and the main problem with the gene theory of cancer and personalized targeted therapy for cancer. "The whole paradigm has to change, the whole concept of what people view cancer as has to change before we understand how much more effectively we can build therapies that don't harm anybody," says Seyfried. Tune in for the full conversation, and check out his book, Cancer as a Metabolic Disease: On the Origin, Management, and Prevention of Cancer.

What's the ultimate cause of cancer? It's not an easy question to answer, and according to Travis Christofferson, author of Tripping Over the Truth: The Return of the Metabolic Theory of Cancer, there's no single cause, but a series of complex interactions and events that depend at least somewhat on our environment. Christofferson explains this in terms of epigenetic responses, which result in the turning off or on of certain genes--allowing some to be expressed and blocking others from being expressed. Diet, toxins, medications, and even loneliness are just a few of the factors that could trigger epigenetic responses and ultimately contribute to the determination of whether or not someone will develop cancer. Christofferson offers an insightful conversation that touches on a range of topics, including the benefits of using metabolic therapy in conjunction with chemotherapy and radiation, the therapeutical differential between cancer cells and healthy cells that's produced by the ketogenic diet, the use of aerobic glycolysis by cancer cells as opposed to oxidative pathways (the Warburg effect) and how this can be taken advantage of in the treatment of cancer, how and why the repurposing of drugs--in particular Metformin--holds promise as a form of cancer treatment, and why brain cancers seem to be most responsive to metabolic therapies. Click play to hear the full conversation, and check out his book to learn more.

Toby Simpson, co-founder, and CTO of Fetch (fetch.ai) delivers an informative, detailed overview of the future of data in the digital world, and how artificial intelligence is pushing innovation forward in a collaborative way. Simpson brings over 30 years experience in software development with ten as CTO across three companies to Fetch's management team. He is a seasoned software developer and manager and has developed and built multiple highly successful computer games for various platforms. Simpson was an original developer at the established AI company, DeepMind, that was notably acquired by Google in 2014. And as the CTO of Ososim, he developed and designed a simulation engine capable of delivering collaborative learning experiences for the corporate market. At Fetch, Simpson utilizes his knowledge of software complexity and decentralized problem solving to design the next generation of advanced economic software agents as well as the environments in which they exist and prosper. Pairing digital intelligence with cryptoeconomics, Simpson seeks to build a more balanced and efficient future economy for everyone to contribute to. Simpson discusses his passion for virtual environments, advanced machine learning, and AI, as he recounts memories from his early background that stimulated the birth of Fetch. He explains the concept of autonomous economic agents, which are adaptive, independent programs that can work for the individual, for an entity, or themselves for any reason they're tasked. Fetch is a distributed network that is made up of nodes that essentially act as a service and directory for these autonomous economic agents. Fetch is the world's first truly intelligent ledger as it allows data to act autonomously. Via machine learning and AI technology, the Fetch platform can enable data to work in a cooperative manner and thus solve problems immediately and deliver results to the user. The data expert describes how Fetch is a decentralized digital world in which all useful and pertinent economic activity takes place. The digital entities (autonomous economic agents) can freely transact and coordinate tasks independently of human intervention and can thus represent themselves, individuals, or devices and services. He expounds upon the particular elements of the Fetch platform, such as the open economic framework. As Simpson explains, the digital world in which agents live is called the open economic framework. He describes this world as the ultimate value exchange dating agency of sorts in which each agent sees a space-optimized in real-time solely for them. And Simpson states that the open economic framework is their gateway to the digital world; it provides the senses for the agents, offering them the opportunity to see, explore, transact, and receive other information about what is going on in its digital world. Further, Simpson elaborates on the platform's smart ledger, which is a next-generation type of learning ledger that can provide a collective intelligence to support agents' individual intelligences, such as market intelligence, etc. Simpson outlines some of the specific areas of industry in which the Fetch platform can offer incredible support and assistance, such as transportation, supply chain management, and hospitality. He discusses their corporate partnerships and the future expectations for Fetch. Simpson provides details on their successful private testnet that is currently working with over 100 nodes, that they are using to build real applications. And Simpson discusses their use cases and his future expectations for economic opportunities to exchange value. Additionally, Simpson enthusiastically details their market and how the Fetch platform can facilitate many individuals, entities, and businesses globally.

Shmuli Goldberg, VP of marketing at LawGeex (lawgeex.com), delivers a complete analysis of the inherent problems of the contract review and approval process that businesses contend with daily, and how artificial intelligence is making the work easier via automation. Goldberg has abundant experience in the areas of legal operations, analytics, and optimization with the special focus on helping legal teams reach their maximum potential. He served as senior technology evangelist at ClickTale, as well as director of marketing at Feedvisor. Goldberg is a regular guest and speaker at varied industry conferences across the globe. Goldberg's team at LawGeex works on advanced contract solutions for business. LawGeex offers award-winning software that automates the process of review and approval for everyday contracts. With a specialty in transformation of legal operations, LawGeex implements artificial intelligence solutions to aid legal teams with automation, thus facilitating in-house legal work, making it easier, more efficient and impactful—automation that enables their customers to focus on their overall mission and goals with less time needed for paperwork. Industry leaders acknowledge that inefficiency costs time, wastes money, and it lowers employee morale. Goldberg discusses the many problems that are specific to contract review and approval, and how LawGeex employs the most advanced artificial intelligence, machine learning, natural language processing, and text analysis to assist with the review, comprehension, and ultimately approval or disapproval of a legal contract. He discusses the LawGeex platform and how it assists users to analyze their contracts' contents and thoroughly compare to their legal team's predefined criteria and input, or to their industry's accepted benchmarks. By giving experienced lawyers the opportunity to focus on more complex work, and removing the grunt work from their day, attorneys can have more productive, satisfying days. Goldberg states that it is inevitable that artificial intelligence will have a standing legal position going forward. He states that the use of technologies will become an accepted standard and future cases will set precedent as those who do not use basic available technology for important tasks such as diagnosis in the medical field, etc. could possibly be found to be negligent when problems arise. And Goldberg elaborates on how most bar requirements insist that attorneys utilize the latest technology in their legal work. Goldberg explains the specificity of their platform and how users can detail a long list of things they would like to see in a contract as well as things they do not want to see in a contract, and how the LawGeex AI-enabled software will deliver the results they seek. The legal AI expert discusses the future of contracts and legal claims. And he explains how AI and human work will coexist almost always, as deviations within software will typically require human interaction. As Goldberg explains most automated tasks go forward swimmingly, but in the event, there is a problem, humans decide the best course of action.

Amy Berger, MS, CNS, NTP, founder of Tuit Nutrition (tuitnutrition.com), provides an extensive overview of nutrition as it relates to good health, disease, cognition, and well being. Berger talks about her family medical history and her concern that there was a lot of disease in that history. She discusses how she grew up as a chubby child and how weight loss solutions that actually work are so important. She recounts her own personal experiences with weight, knowing what it's like to feel upset when you are counting calories, eating low fat, and exercising, but you still aren't losing the weight, and your energy and mood is incredibly low. And while Berger learned through her own experimentation that reducing sugar and total carbohydrate intake was the key to successful weight loss, she states that through her extensive research she has found that weight loss is actually the least impressive task that carbohydrate reduction can accomplish. Berger is a certified nutrition specialist and nutritional therapy practitioner who served her country in the United States Air Force. Berger's expertise comes through years of research into low-carbohydrate nutrition, which can help people take back their vitality while eating delicious foods. As Berger states, staying well doesn't require anyone to starve themselves, deprive themselves of tasty foods, or spend every day at the gym working out constantly. Berger's business has a strong online presence where she provides a wealth of insightful, detailed information on a wide swath of health and nutrition-oriented topics, from metabolism and weight loss to insulin-related topics, thyroid function, and much more. Berger is the author of The Alzheimer's Antidote: Using a Low-Carb, High-Fat Diet to Fight Alzheimer's Disease, Memory Loss, and Cognitive Decline, a must-read for anyone who is concerned with improving health, vitality, and cognition, and finding ways to fight disease. She holds a master's degree in human nutrition from the University of Bridgeport. Berger discusses her extensive research into what she refers to as "nutritional intervention" that can potentially support brain health and assist those who have Alzheimer's disease. She mentions that those who implement certain nutritional changes in their diet see noticeable improvement in cognition, behavior, and memory. She discusses the science behind the cellular conditions that arise which create a sort of "energy crisis in the brain." She talks about how cells that aren't getting energy from glucose anymore can still, remarkably, get energy from ketones. Ketones are a hybrid energy source and Berger states that they are the key to many issues. Berger gives an incredibly detailed overview of insulin issues and discusses how normal blood sugar can still contain extremely high levels of insulin, which can potentially cause gout, hypertension, and more. Thus, many people who aren't actually diabetic can still have lots of chronic health issues due to high insulin levels. Berger discusses hyperthyroidism and the issues that pertain to it, such as depression, inability to lose weight regardless of exercise and proper diet, hair loss, a feeling of being cold constantly, constipation and more. And she talks about the dietary myths that exist about various foods, especially proteins. And sadly, as Berger mentions, many doctors are simply not providing adequate testing to truly understand some patient's issues related to the thyroid. The nutrition expert discusses ketosis in depth and how it works for the body. She expounds upon the topics of fat consumption, variability in individuals, and measures people can take to ensure they are getting the most from ketosis. She talks about how some people get hung up on the ratios in their diet, but that each person needs to look at their diet and consider the issues individually, as everybody is unique to some degree. As Berger's voluminous research has shown, there are many myths that exist in regard to how the body processes food and what nutritional habits can or cannot do. And many times the key to understanding obesity, diabetes, heart disease, dementia, mood disorders, and other health issues lies in getting a deeper understanding of our bodies in relation to our diet.

The hologram is a picture of the world as recorded by Wi-Fi," says Philip Holl, explaining the bachelor's thesis he completed at the Technical University of Munich. By recording all Wi-Fi signals that pass through a certain plane, Holl was able to create a 3D picture--or a hologram--of every object through which those signals passed. While it was done primarily for academic purposes, the use cases for this technology include indoor and outdoor tracking. As a Ph.D. student, Holl has shifted his focus into the world of artificial intelligence and machine learning and is currently working on using artificial intelligence to solve fluid optimization problems. For example, in order for a robot to pick up a glass of water without spilling it, the robot must understand how the water will behave within that glass. Holl also discusses a recent project in which he developed AI-based algorithms for determining whether rare events in physics can be classified as real, or are merely background events from other sources. Tune in for an in-depth explanation of all of Holl's work, and feel free to reach out with questions.

Kenneth Wu, CEO of Milk and Eggs (milkandeggs.com), a local farms food delivery business, provides a detailed overview of the current state of farm fresh foods, delivery, freshness, and environmental impact. As founder and chief executive officer of Milk and Eggs, Wu manages the company's overall vision and planned growth strategies. As he explains, Milk and Eggs is an online farmers market with a delivery arm. Wu oversees the company's investor relations as well as the general business development. Wu is a seasoned entrepreneur with over twenty years of business experience with a specialty in startups and new business ventures. Wu was the founder of AirSplat, the largest retailer of shooting sports equipment, tactical accessories, and gear where he oversaw the company's development, growth, and management. And Wu served as president of 2WheelBikes, a popular cycling equipment and accessories retailer. Other notable entrepreneurial successes in Wu's long history of business expansion include his founding of Battle Arena, a virtual sports entertainment center and Cast Gear, a prominent tactical clothing and gear retailer. Wu explains the process that makes Milk and Eggs work so successfully. He details how their produce and foods originate fresh from farms and foodmakers and are delivered to the consumer. He gives an overview of the methods they utilize to deliver the freshest goods in an efficient manner that is better for the environment as well. And as Wu explains, Milk and Eggs can keep prices low because there is no waste, inventory, middlemen, or large inefficient distribution centers and stores that require massive, costly real estate. He outlines the company's focus on real foods, produce, etc. and discusses why they stay away from what he refers to as "center aisle" products such as chips, sodas, toilet paper, etc. The farm fresh entrepreneur discusses their product lines and some of the specialty offerings they provide—curated boxes of items such as farm box, seasonal box, and office meeting box—each delivering different items for niche markets or desires. Additionally, he discusses their unique meal kits that are developed in coordination with local nutritional authorities, for those who really want to maximize their health benefits. Wu details their focus on local artisanal products and the immense positive feedback they receive from consumers on these specialty products, from the access to foods that would normally require extensive travel, to the freshness of the ingredients and foods. He enthusiastically states that many of their customers truly praise the quality of their foods and have stated that the level of freshness is much higher than what they can find at their local grocery stores and markets. Wu describes the time frames that typical foods sit around before being purchased or consumed, and how Milk and Eggs has dramatically reduced the 'sit time' on foods, which is instantly obvious when consumers taste the freshness. The food freshness expert talks about the problem of waste in the food industry and how it is a huge drain on our ecosystem. He talks about the percentage of food that is classified as 'imperfect' and what his company and others are doing to cut down on waste. Wu's goal is to ensure that all food is used by donating to local food banks that support the community and those in need. And Milk and Eggs uses minimal packaging and reusable insulated delivery bags to further cut waste, and any plastic bags they use are specially designed to be biodegradable to decrease pollution and cause no harm to wildlife.

Pamela Silver is the principal investigator of the Silver Lab (silver.med.harvard.edu) and an Elliot T and Onie H Adams Professor of Biochemistry and Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School. Silver delivers an incredibly interesting and important overview of the biological advances that can help to reduce climate change and improve other pressing global issues through science. Silver is a member of the Harvard Wyss Institute and the Harvard University Graduate Program in Systems Biology, as well as the Harvard Medical School BBS Graduate Program and the Harvard Biophysics and Chemical Biology Graduate Programs. Her passionate interest and curiosity with systems to synthetic biology drive her team's research at Silver Lab. Silver's team works in the arena of systems and synthetic biology to develop, design, and build biological systems in mammalian and prokaryotic cells. Working in a vast and diverse swath of methods and approaches from the computational to experimental, Silver states her team's overarching mission is to address complex scientific questions that may impact the world and its population on a grand scale. Silver Lab works on many projects annually, from the reconstruction of entire new genomes to the hopeful development of principles for building synthetic cells that act as sensors, bio-computers, and memory devices, as well as the building of novel subsystems such as proteins with designed properties for general therapeutic use. Silver discusses her diverse work that tackles health-related issues, sustainability issues, climate change, and beyond, solutions to improve the way we live and interact with our world. She states her philosophy that biology is the best chemistry and talks about her work to replace many chemical industry processes with biological solutions in an effort to decrease stress on the environment overall. She details her "bionic leaf" project, which is a system that uses solar energy to essentially split water molecules and hydrogen-eating bacteria to generate and produce liquid fuels. The system can convert solar energy to biomass and the possibilities for this scientific advance are truly revolutionary. And she notes the particular importance of science-based solutions and the landmark Paris Accord (Paris Agreement), which is a multinational agreement on global warming and greenhouse-gas emissions, as climate change is truly accelerating. The biology innovator discusses the future probability of seeing more hydrogen-fueled automobiles and the current pushback against them, from the issues regarding the centralized production of traditional fuel sources, shipping concerns, and politics. And she explains how the push to move electric cars forward has perhaps stymied the hydrogen-fueled industry. Silver describes how some of the bacteria that exist within the bionic leaf can be engineered such that they can utilize all the tools for gene editing and gene engineering, and thus place genes into them that program the cells to make things, from molecules that look like biofuels, plastic precursors, and even feedstock for other elements. Commanding the knowledge regarding how to program cells in a completely rational way can be extremely valuable for many advanced scientific areas from stem cell design, to drug therapy, and the environment. Silver's lab strives to utilize a combination of theoretical and experimental approaches to further develop and improve what biology can offer us, in a myriad of ways.

It's been about 150 years since the largest known coronal mass ejection (CME)--the ejection of millions of tons of plasma from the sun into space at a speed of 300 kilometers per second. On average, CMEs occur every 100 to 200 years, which means the next big event is inevitable. While it won't threaten life on earth, it will put every satellite system at risk and threaten the safety of astronauts in space. As the head of space weather at the European Space Agency, Jussi Luntama discusses the 2018 Lagrange mission that aims to monitor solar activity and more accurately predict the presence and direction of a coming CME. The team working on the ESA Lagrange mission will park a spacecraft at Lagrange points, which are points where the gravitational pull of the sun and earth balance each other out. This will cause the spacecraft to trail the earth's orbit at a distance of 150 million kilometers for eternity or until intentionally moved, and will allow them to view solar activity from a perspective that's different from the one they have when looking at the sun from the earth. Tune in to hear Jussi Luntama discuss a variety of interesting topics, including the relationship between CMEs and periods of high and low solar activity, the effects of CMEs on power grids, and the launch of the Lagrange spacecraft planned to happen between 2023 and early 2025. To learn more, simply type "Where no mission has gone before" into a Google search engine.